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Monday, 5 August 2013

Tatton Park VW Show ~ Our first day out in 4 weeks!

We went out! Our children have been really brilliant so far this Summer and entertained themselves at home, but finally we've reached the point where we are able to take them out for the day as my partner is recovering well now from his Meningitis. The Tatton Park Volkswagen Show is an event that I've been to every August since 2003 and it would have been a shame to miss it as it's so close to home. It's organised and staffed by members of VW North West - who do an absolutely fantastic job.

It is held in the grounds of Tatton Park, which is a gorgeous place to visit and has an amazing play area for children. This is also the venue for the Foodies Festival and many other events throughout the year.

It is a one-day event, so camping is only available to traders who need to set up their stalls. Last year we accompanied our friends from Campertronic, Dave and Kate, as Kate was very heavily pregnant and had a 2 year old to wrangle too. Campertronic sell all kinds of vehicle electronics and accessories and Dave spends most of his day cycling around fitting alarms and central locking kits to people's vans and cars.

We had a fantastic weekend last year and this time we were due to stay with them again and help with the children while they manned the stall, but when my partner became ill it looked unlikely we'd be able to help. Because of his improvement over the last week we thought we'd give it a go and stay as long as we could, but camping was definitely still beyond us, so we travelled down bright and early Sunday morning.

The Campertronic stall - all of our spare house keys were made here!

If you've ever been to any classic car show then you'll know it's mainly about the vehicles - but there's also room for shopping and food!

Plenty of VW's to look at (often with their engine lids open - this is the default position for VW's).

You can buy almost anything with a VW printed onto it - bur out 4 year old's favourite stall was
the stickers! He was desperate to spend his precious £2 buying some!

A hot dog, a balloon, a cupcake and an ice cream, what more could you ever want?!

......except maybe one of these - the perfect VW for a 4 year old...

My partner did an astounding amount of walking (as did the little boys) and we managed to see the whole show and be helpful and entertain our friend's children. There was also quite a lot of sitting in deck chairs soaking up the gorgeous weather - another sign of improvement on the part of my partner, who last week couldn't bear the sun in his eyes.

My partner managed until lunchtime before a very well-earned hour or so napping..

....while our 4 year old had fun with his periscope - spying on all the people in the stall!

We even got to actually test the 1stfone in use, as on our return to the stall at one point our 4 year old walked straight past and immediately realised he'd lost us, so stood still and rang me! I hadn't even realised he'd got lost because I could still see him - but he couldn't see us. It worked a charm and I was able to tell him to stay still and walk over to where he was waiting. Without it I'd have had to run to catch him and he'd have been far more upset than he was.

Some people are less scared of Tiggers than others

The weather was gorgeous, we had a bit of rain around 3pm, but by then my partner was flagging and it was time to start saying our goodbyes anyway. We couldn't have asked for more really.

When we got home I made a quick tea and we ate, and then my fella went to bed....and stayed there until 8.10am this morning. The children examined their selection of VW t-shirts and models and flashing bouncy balls, and I lathered myself in aftersun! How it is that we have all these gingers who come home pasty white while I ended up beetroot red I'll never know!

This isn't a sponsored or anything else post - it was a day out and we paid for our ticket!

About The Brick Castle

We feature play and entertainment for children and young people from tiny to teen and beyond. Skilled at Lego building, reviewing big kid toys and mending all things trodden on. Grieving the loss of our 16 year old to suicide in August 2014. I write about this occasionally, and I collect smiles as often as possible. You can find #TBCSmiles on the blog and my Instagram every 15th of the month - everyone is welcome to share their smiles.

Mainly my own content with an occasional guest post to put food on the table. If I didn't write it, they'll have certainly paid me to host it.